August 13, 2015

Atom bombs destroying Hiroshima and Nagasaki end the Hollywood version of WW2. It’s stunning cinema: a fireball, a cloud, and the curtain drops.

That rendition, however, misses the post-Nagasaki political intrigue in Tokyo. Japan could not respond to the atomic attacks. The inability to respond spurred more sober Japanese leaders in the “peace” faction to risk assassination, confront the “war” faction’s hard-core fanatics and convince the emperor to seek peace.

The fanatics still wanted to fight. Obsessed fanatics, be their obsession bushido or lebensraum or workers paradise or the Caliphate, don’t drop the sword.

And note this:

As Nazi power grew, reluctance became appeasement. The 1938 Munich Agreement gave Hitler permission to absorb a slice of Czechoslovakia in exchange for what Neville Chamberlain called “peace for our time.” Yes, it does sound a bit like giving Iran permission to build nuclear weapons.